Billingham Town are braced for an almighty fixture pile-up that could scupper their hopes of a flying finish.

After their FA Cup and Vase exploits took up a series of precious Saturdays, Town have played just 20 league games.

They are seven or eight matches behind most of the top flight rivals and were hoping to cash in their games in a bid to repeat last term's impressive third place finish.

So, when the entire league programme was washed out last week, it hit them hard.

Not only did they lose a home game against rock bottom Penrith, but they also had their midweek Durham Challenge Cup semi-final trip to big boys Spennymoor postponed.

That game will now be played next Tuesday - which means a League Cup clash with Dunston must be rescheduled.

"This is going to come back and haunt us," predicted Town boss Alan Robinson.

"It is going to make it almost impossible for us to push into the top three or four now.

"With the games in hand we were hoping to be challenging but we are running out of time to fit them in.

"We are looking at two or three games a week in the final month.

"You don't mind two games a week at the start when lads are fresh, but on hard pitches after a long season its different.

"And with three games a week the muscles really start to ache and the injuries build up.

"We are looking at getting the season extended now but it will still be very difficult.

"To be honest I don't understand how it has happened.

"It has been building up for months yet the league have left us idle while other teams played in midweek.

"We had one abandoned against Guisborough and that was unfortunate but that hasn't caused the problem.

"And, although we did well in the Vase, we didn't come in until the second round so we didn't play a lot of games.

"And we were without lights for a while but that didn't have much effect either because we either switched the fixtures to away games or borrowed other grounds for the matches we were scheduled for.

"It is just the lack of midweek games all season. We don't seem to have had many at all. We have asked for them and still not got them.

"Now losing these two latest games will have a big knock-on effect. Both the Dunston League Cup game and Spennymoor Durham Cup game must be played soon and that means losing midweek slots for league games.

"This is a nightmare for us. It is going to takes it toll. It could mean us just trying to get through when we should be thinking of a strong finish."

If Town lose any more fixtures, they face a strength-sapping three games a week climax to the season - and they know well how that feels.

Three years ago good cup runs and a series of wash-outs in a wet winter led to chronic congestion and somehow they had to play 11 games in 21 chaotic days - including the last two in 24 hours - as a promising season fizzled out into a 14th place finish.

"That was just a blur," recalled Alan. "The league wouldn't extend the season and we just had to get on with it.

"We had games one after the other, almost every other day.

"In the last week we played four games. We were down to the walking wounded and some lads we had drafted in.

"We played Monday, Wednesday then back to back on Friday night and Saturday."

Town lost four and drew two of the seven games in the last two weeks - but they finished with a final flourish.

Just 18 hours after losing 1-0 to Newcastle Blue Star they signed off with a 7-0 thumping of relegated Crook Town.